25 Jul 2025 07:39:03
{Ed's Note - Shappy has posted a new article entitled, My Take On The Manchester United Striker Situation
1.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 08:58:33
We 100% require a goal scoring CF, we can talk around it, write lengthy articles but there are absolutely no excuses whatsoever if the owners fail to fill what was the number one position requirement.
Clock is ticking, the new season is coming in what 3 weeks and they are giving RA little time to work with any further new recruits.
Yes I understand the money aspect but this and a GK and CM needs sorting quickly if we want a good season.
2.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 10:14:10
Agreed Redman, our current striker options aren’t up to the task. Whilst Cunha and Mbuemo are good additions, they’re not magicians.
If we want to climb the table we need players who are better than we currently have in numerous positions. No.9 and goalkeeper are probably the most important now.
3.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 10:40:17
Both this positions need immediate attention. Cm also urgent cb less so imo.
Can we get all 3? Depends on outgoings.
4.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 11:13:59
Agreed Red Man, the other positions are nice to haves, but a proven goalscorer is essential. As I said on another post, our goals against isn't that bad compared to other teams, but our goals scored is dreadful.
5.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 11:20:11
Whilst we need a striker, what i fear will happen is we end up getiibg someone we don't really want just to get a striker. I also dobt want us to overpay say 60 million for Watkins just becuase we have missed out on our top targets.
In eother of these scenarios i would much ratger that we got our man in another position and revisit our striker search in a year.
If we come out of this summer with 4 good players who each upgrade the team, a youngster or two who will backup amd challenge for starting positions in the next few years and sone of the dross gone i will think its been a good summer.
A few youngsters coming into squad and pushing even more of the dross out and for me its been a very good one.
6.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 12:40:10
Unfortunately clubs know we need to sell players.
Rashford has gone on loan when we really needed the cash. Hopefully Sancho goes soon. Selling Garnacho for around £45 -£55 million would be good. With rumours of the Saudis being in for Anthony, we need them to be true.
If they had all gone by now, it would have been a lot easier to buy replacements. This is Utd, we never seem to be able to do things easy.
7.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 12:44:31
Whilst I would prefer Costa (City sign Trafford), Martinez would be next, but what about Ortega? Better than Onana!
8.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 13:55:34
Question is what was our plan for buying a striker. Who were we aiming for? Were we really planning to wait until August to buy our number one priority? Just doesn’t look like good planning so far.
9.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 14:05:54
This is a 2-3 year squad rebuild, it was never going to be able to be completed or even half completed in one summer.
I don't get this talk from people who are complaining already (before the window has even closed) that if the club doesn't sign this player or that player then they have failed.
If we are honest what was the major issues that we needed to fix this summer.
1. A lack of goals.
2. Competition in goal.
So how is that going so far?
Well we've already added two of the top ten EPL goalscorers from last season. That sounds like a pretty big success.
What about the keeper? Well we've made inquiries and we seem to be lining up Senne Lammens according to reports. If we get that deal over the line then we will have signed one of the top young keepers in Europe.
Just by signing a keeper to go with Cunha and Mbeumo we will have addressed the two major issues from last season.
Could we do more? Absolutely, and I still fully expect us to get a striker signed before the window slams shut.
However, we have already spent 130m, and we don't have much more capacity to spend without selling players. Both to make space and to raise funds.
There aren't many players we can sell to raise significant funds, Shaw, Bruno, Mainoo, Garnacho and Rashford are the only ones who'd raise a significant amount. Other who we could look to sell might just about breakeven if we are lucky.
We considered selling Bruno when we got a big offer from Saudi. Yet Bruno didn't want to accept it so he has stayed and we didn't raise any funds from him.
No one will buy Shaw due to his injuries and his wages.
Rashford's wages and his preference to move to a UCL club severely limited our ability to sell him for a significant fee. He's now joined Barcelona on loan with an option to buy next summer. Hopefully he does well and they activate that option. But even if they do that doesn't help us this summer in terms of raising funds.
That leaves Mainoo and Garnacho as the only options left to sell to raise funds. We do have want to sell Mainoo, and even if we did it would create a problem as we'd have to buy a replacement.
So we need to sell Garnacho to be able to legitimately raise the funds to buy a striker. However, this is made complicated by the fact that he wants to stay in the EPL. Chelsea is his preferred destination by all accounts, although if they sign Xavi Simons to go with Gittens, Delap and João Pedro then I expect that option might be off the table for him.
Villa is another linked with him, beyond that Napoli are the only other club with any serious interests in him at this time. While the signing of Cunha and Mbeumo, to go with Bruno, Amad, Mount and Zirkzee who can all play in Garnacho's position, he is a player we can afford to lose and not have to replace in the squad.
Until he leaves we cannot spend a significant amount that any quality striker will cost.
That's just the reality of our situation, no point stamping our feet, throwing our toys out the pram, or crying about it. There are multiple reasons why the rebuild was never going to be finished this summer, from the need to clear out the squad and the challenges that presents, to the lack of funds, and finally the sheer number of players we need to bring in.
Yes in an ideal world we would sign a top striker, keeper and a midfielder this summer. I expect we'll get a striker and a keeper, but it will take late into the window to get both sorted. I highly doubt we get a midfielder unless we sell one for a significant amount to fund the replacement.
We have Sancho stuck in no man's land, available for a reasonable fee, but demanding ridiculous wages.
Antony has offers but only wants to go to Betis (which given his success there and the way they have taken to him is probably fair enough), yet they don't have the funds to be able to buy him for what we need to sell him for to avoid making a loss. The rumour now is that they are just waiting us out in the hope that we will agree to another loan (which we probably will have to accept) .
Even if/ when we have the money to spend we still have to convince the player to join a club on our 6th rebuild since we last won the league. While the striker market is very limited and there are many better placed clubs competing for the best players signatures.
I expect we might see a deal for Lammens agreed over the next week to 10 days, while a move for a striker is likely to happen in the final week or two of the window once we have sold players and raised funds.
I'd like to see some deal that gets Watkins in, but I have a suspicion that the only option will be Jackson (which personally I'm not against) .
We almost certainly will start the season without a new striker, we need to hope that we can find solutions from what we have for the start of the season at least.
10.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 14:21:31
Redman do you think whatever the plan was has been scuppered by not being able to sell the players we need to.
No point moaning. i'm sure the plan has had to change because the players are not moving as easily as we would like.
Im sure if garna was gone antony gone we would have got our striker but we can't ad they are sticking out for what they want.
Easy to be critical and ask questions about plans but they're is context to take into consideration. You can't just ignore the obvious and ask why its not different.
11.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 14:41:53
We did try to buy a striker but one decided to join Chelsea, another Arsenal and another Liverpool. I think that was the plan.
12.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 15:59:21
Ken
It isn’t moaning to question what our planning has been. You must know with your experience that plans include setbacks, by having options, the plan should include scuppering of players not being sold immediately. It is almost setting a strategy and for me it isn’t clear what our strategy is with purchasing a CF. It is very appropriate to ask.
13.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 19:32:17
Our plan was Delap at 30m, thereafter there was no plan - that is the point Redman is making. We have scrambled and bumbled our way through countless options since then (most likely the majority purely clickbait I might add), but I have hope that we have our plan B as it were and it is quite literally left field from what people are suggesting.
Could that be a Prem record bid for Isak? That would be amzing, but I just can't see it.
Could it be a swap deal for Jackson with Garna - maybe that makes sense
Could it be move for an unknown that is on our scouting radar. perhaps.
I still want Kane. if we are talking out and out strikers.
14.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 20:03:36
Midfield is an immediate priority. We need pace, power, drive and stamina in there.
15.) 25 Jul 2025
25 Jul 2025 22:46:23
It was a 2-3 year plan 3 years ago! The line in the sand gets washed away every year?.
16.) 26 Jul 2025
26 Jul 2025 01:48:34
I agree with Oakbark. We have to set ourselves realistic expectations for our rebuild. We're in a sticky situation with the players we need to move on, this dictates our ability in the market.
We should focus on a GK and midfielder first, teams run right through us. What's the point of making the same mistakes again with a striker (getting anybody in for the sake of it) . We have (hopefully) addressed the issues of creating and scoring with Cunha and Mbuemo. Maybe, just maybe Hoijlund may benefit from players either side of him that actually look up as opposed to the selfishness of Rashford and Garnacho.
CM and GK for me needs to be sorted first before a ST, against popular opinion I know but that's just my two rupees.